Friday 8 August 2008

folly


I just checked and this little pile of boxes cost my Mother £300 (reduced from £480).

The boxes contain pills to combat hair loss (something that Mum obsessed about constantly whilst all the time losing something much more important).

I rescued these (and there were several times this many) from my holistic holocaust a while back, when I threw away all the 'alternative' potions and pills, lotions and sprays I found all over Mum's flat, all of them opened and then stuffed in a drawer, most of them out-of-date.

I rescued these because of their name. I know that it refers to hair, but I'm struck by the irony of "folly grow".

2 comments:

Gavin said...

A lot of money went out my mom's door responding to any and all direct mail pleas...whether products or straight donations. Of course, the more she gave, the more her name was passed around, and the more she felt she had to give.

"FREE" was her buzzword. Give us $1,000 and get a trinket FREE, and she'd be writing that check!

Greg said...

Yes, same here. She was giving away thousands every month (far in excess of her income) to charity, and meanwhile responding to every gee-whiz gimcrack herbal miracle leaflet.

Consequently, as you can imagine, the mail waiting for me every time I've visited the old place has been about a foot deep (not an exaggeration). I'm wading through it all, calling them and telling them to remove her name from their mailing lists.

The ones that annoy me most are those charities that have chosen to make their 'suggested donations' look more like an account. I'm convinced that these are deliberately set up to make older people believe they owe money.